Super Mario: Decades of Journalistic Ardor for Cuomo’s Liberal Advocacy

Rich Noyes | January 2, 2015
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There is no right-of-center politician who has become a hero to journalists for their passionate rhetoric on behalf of conservatism, but ex-NY Governor Cuomo was a hero to reporters precisely because of his ideology and the capability with which he espoused it. “He’s incredibly smart. He’s the most interesting person to talk to that I’ve ever met in politics,” Time’s Michael Kramer told ABC’s Nightline earlier in 1992. On CNN, moments after Cuomo’s nominating speech for Bill Clinton that year, Bill Moyers gushed on CNN: “It’s worth dying prematurely so you can hear somebody else do your eulogy if that somebody is Mario Cuomo.”

And, as Cuomo left the governorship after his 1994 loss to George Pataki, then-CBS host Harry Smith beseeched him to continue speaking out for liberalism: “Will you continue to use this passion, will you continue to use this eloquence? Some people have suggested you should become a counterbalance to Rush Limbaugh.”

 

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